August 17, 1889

Writing of the North Dakota Constitution completed.

August 17, 1825

The Yellowstone Expedition under Gen. Henry Atkinson reached its destination -- the mouth of the Yellowstone River -- and established Camp Balfour.

August 17

1825 The Yellowstone Expedition under General Henry Atkinson reached its destination -- the mouth of the Yellowstone River.

1889 The writing of the North Dakota Constitution was completed.

August 18, 1919

The first local Business and Professional Womens club in North Dakota was organized at Grand Forks, where the state organization had been organized earlier the same year.

August 18, 1864

General Alfred Sully and his Yellowstone Expedition arrived at Fort Union Trading Post on the Missouri River, about 20 miles southwest of present day Williston.

August 19

1889 Gov. Mellette called an election on Oct. 1, 1889, for adoption or rejection of the North Dakota Constitution and election of first state officials.

1960 Usher L. Burdick, North Dakota lieutenant governor 1911-12 and congressman 1935-45 and 1949-59, died in Washington, D. C.

August 20

1806 Returning from a successful trip to the Pacific, the Lewis and Clark Expedition left the area of present-day North Dakota for St. Louis.

1890 H. E. Stockbridge became the first president of North Dakota Agricultural College, now North Dakota State University, and director of the Experiment Station.

1962 The 30th Bombardment Squadron at Grand Forks Air Force Base, equipped with B52-H aircraft, was declared combat ready.

1969 M. M. Oppegard, publisher of the Grand Forks Herald for 40 years before his retirement July 1, 1969, died at the age of 78.

August 21, 1867

Pembina County was founded as part of Dakota Territory.

August 22

1883 Construction of the Northern Pacific Railway line to the Pacific Coast was completed, although the formal Gold Spike ceremony at Gold Creek, Montana, was delayed until Sept. 8 of the same year.

1884 Mercer County was organized. It was named for William H. H. Mercer, a rancher who settled in Burleigh County in 1869.

1889 The first North Dakota Republican state convention was held at Fargo to choose a slate of candidates for the first state election. John Miller was nominated for governor.

August 23

1868 Indians attacked a detail of six soldiers and two civilian scouts at Palmer Springs, in southwestern Benson County, killing three of them. They were driving a mail wagon between Fort Totten and Fort Stevenson.

1964 Grand Forks International Airport was dedicated.

August 24

1884 Wells County was organized. It was named for E. P. Wells, a member of the Dakota Territory Assembly.

1961 Seven persons were killed in a car-pickup truck collision near Devils Lake.

August 25

1919 Brian Karr was killed in an airplane crash at Sutton, possibly the first fatal airplane accident in North Dakota.

1920 Establishment of the city commission form of government was approved by the electorate of Grand Forks. It continued until 1940.

August 26

1962 Vilhjalmur Stefansson died at age 82 at Hanover, New Hampshire/ The famed Arctic explorer grew up in Pembina County and attended the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks. He was born Nov. 3, 1879, at Arnes, Manitoba.

1966 A $1.57 million general construction contract was awarded on the Red River High School at Grand Forks.

August 27, 1903

The North Dakota Bankers Association opened a two-day reorganization convention in Grand Forks, after having been inactive for a decade.

August 28, 1857

Construction was begun on Fort Abercrombie, the first garrisoned military fort in North Dakota. In the Sioux uprising of 1862, the fort would be under siege for a month.

August 28, 1928

Governor A.G. Sorlie died in office.

August 29, 1833

Two famous fur traders, William Sublette and Robert Campbell, arrived at the mouth of the Yellowstone River in western North Dakota, there to establish Fort William in opposition to the American Fur Company's Fort Union.

August 30, 1801

Walsh County is organized.

August 31, 1941

The million-dollar Grand Forks municipal airport dedicated.

September 1, 1801

John Cameron of Hudson Bay Company sent Alexander Henry to build a fur trading post at Grand Forks.

September 1, 1864

A wagon train under the command of Captain James L. Fisk was attacked by Sioux. Among the 12 men killed was the scout, Jefferson Dilts, for whom a temporary defense work was named. Fort Dilts is near Rhame, north of U.S. Highway 12.

September 2, 1892

A two-day gathering urging tariff reciprocity between Canada and the United States, "the first convention held to consider this question in the world," adjourned at Fargo.

September 3, 1950

The Clarence Iverson, Williston Basin discovery well, was spudded in; seven months later black gold was produced and a new North Dakota industry was born.

September 3, 1950

231st Engineering Battalion ordered into federal service for Korean emergency.

September 3, 1863

The first day of the three-day Battle of Whitestone Hill, last major Indian conflict east of the Missouri River. The site is southeastern North Dakota near Ellendale. Commanding the Army forces was General Alfred Sully.

September 3, 1862

The Minnesota Massacre of 1862 extended to the five-year-old military fort, Abercrombie, located at the eastern edge of Dakota Territory. A 26-day siege got underway on this day.

September 4, 1932

Fort Dilts State Park dedicated near Rhame.

September 5, 1933

Second cornerstone laying for new state Capitol, under administration of Governor Langer.

September 5, 1883

The cornerstone for the Dakota Territory capitol building was laid at Bismarck. Among those present were General Ulysses S. Grant, James J. Hill of the Great Northern, President Henry Willard of the Northern Pacific, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, Sitting Bull, Generals H.H. Sibley and W.D. Washburn, and the Chicago merchant, Marshall Field.

September 5, 1963

A shelterbelt laboratory of the Lake States Forest Experiment Station was dedicated at Bottineau.

September 6, 1878

President Rutherford B. Hayes visited Red River Valley bonanza wheat farms near Casselton.

September 7, 1947

Radio Station KNOX began broadcasting at Grand Forks.

September 7, 1883

Theodore Roosevelt arrived at Little Missouri for first time on buffalo hunting trip.

September 8, 1951

Thomas E. Whelan sworn in at Bismarck as U.S. ambassador to Nicaragua.

September 8, 1884

The University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, opens its doors to first students.

September 14, 1901

Theodore Roosevelt became President upon the death of William McKinley, eight days after McKinley was shot by an anarchist assassin. Roosevelt said he would never had become President had it not been for his experience of living in the Badlands of North Dakota.

September 13, 1872

First train enters Jamestown.

September 17, 1851

By treaty negotiated at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation was established as the home of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes.

September 17, 1930

The International Peace Garden was incorporated in New York as a result of a proposal from the National Association of Gardeners, of the United States, meeting at Toronto in 1929. Late in 1931 the garden site was selected in the heart of the continent, in North Dakota and Manitoba.

September 21

1905 The First Church of Christ, Scientist at Grand Forks, the first Christian Science church erected in North Dakota, was dedicated.

1917 E. J. Babcock was elected acting president of the University of North Dakota, to succeed Frank L. McVey, who became president of the University of Kentucky.

1942 An officer candidate school was started at North Dakota State University during World War II, with 335 candidates enrolled for military administration courses.

September 21

1951 The Franklin P. Wood Station of Minnkota Power Cooperative at Grand Forks was dedicated at a program featuring Sen. Robert A. Taft of Ohio and REA Administrator Claude R. Vickard.

1965 An omnibus state tax measure passed by the
1965 North Dakota Legislature was defeated at a special referendum election.

September 21, 1951

Franklin P. Wood Station of Minnkota Power Cooperative dedicated at program featuring Senator Robert A. Taft and REA Administrator Claude R. Wickard at Grand Forks.

September 22, 1899

North Dakota's Spanish-American War troops mustered out of federal service.

September 22

1899 North Dakota Spanish-American War troops were mustered out of federal service.

1797 Charles Jean Baptiste Chaboillez arrived at the mouth of the Pembina River to establish the North West Company Pemina House, a fur trading post.

1871 A post office was established at Fargo.

1888 George A. Fulljames was fatally injured in an illegal prize fight in Church's Barn at Grand Forks.

1899 North Dakota's Spanish-American War Troops were mustered out of federal service.

1903 The State School of Science at Wahpeton enrolled its first students.

1933 North Dakota voters at a special election refused to approve a referred act to impose a state sales tax or an initiated measure permitting Sunday movies, but approved an initiated measure allowing the manufacture, sale and distribution of beer.

September 23

1796 The Spanish Flag was flown on this date over the Mandan-Hidatsa trading post in the Fort Clark vicinity of what now is North Dakota. The banner was raised by James Evans, a Spanish subject who had come up the Missouri River.

1806 Lewis and Clark completed their expedition to explore territory west of the Mississippi River.

1915 The first issue of the Leader, the organ of the Nonpartisan League, was published at Fargo.

September 24

1809 Big White, chief of the Mandans, who had gone downriver with Lewis and Clark three years earlier to visit the "Great White Father" in Washington, finally was returned to his people by a well-armed contingent led by the Missouri fur trader, Pierre Chauteau.

1917 Grand Forks Police Chief J. W. Lowe banned parking of automobiles in the immediate vicinity of churches during worship services after clergymen protested that their services were being interrupted "by the noises of the machines."

1966 Basin Electric Power Cooperative dedicated its 200,000 kilowatt Leland H. Olds power generating plant near Stanton.

1968 Richard M. Nixon campaigned in Bismarck as the Republican candidate for President.

September 25

1840 William N. Roach, U. S. senator from North Dakota 1893-99, was born in Louden County, Virgina.

1873 Burleigh County was organized. It was named in honor of Dr. Walter A. Burleigh, Indian agent and trader, delegate to Congress and builder of 50 miles of Northern Pacific Railway roadbed and track.

1892 Five men were burned fatally when fire destroyed a shack used as a "gambling den" at the Grand Forks County village of Thompson.

1940 Wendell Willkie campaigned in North Dakota as the Republican nominee for President, addressing a crowd of more than 7,000 at Bismarck.

1963 President John F. Kennedy spoke at a University of North Dakota convocation and received an honorary degree from the institution, less than two months before his assassination at Dallas.

September 25, 1963

President John F. Kennedy spoke at a University of North Dakota convocation in Grand Forks.

September 26

1847 George B. Winship, founder of the Grand Forks Herald and the state's leading editor at the time of statehood, was born in Saco, Maine.

1887 Voters of Devils Lake voted 70-1 to incorporate and adopt the council form of government.

1887 Devils Lake, the seat of Ramsey County, was incorporated.

September 27

1892 The Grand Forks Trades and Labor Assembly formed a permanent organization, electing Frank Connors of the Cigar Makers Union as its first president.